


Plans

by DesertVixen



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tale Allusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 11:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15460272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: When your plans for revenge don't go as expected...





	Plans

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Casylum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casylum/gifts).



She was supposed to kill him.

That was the plan.

He was the last member of his family. The defeat of the family she served at the hands of his family had weakened their land, and the new victors had been unable to hold their prize.

Now neither family’s name was spoken, except as a warning. 

The family she had served existed in little scraps, survived in the veins of illegitimate children who might one day be able to raise an army and regain their honor. But Helena doubted it, as did most of the surviving knights. 

And yet, the conquerors had to pay.

Everything she had done for the last years was aimed at making them pay, at making this man pay the price for what his family had done.

She had engineered a meeting with the last prince of his line, Mikhail. She had ensured that he remembered her after their first meeting, playing the game of seduction with skill. She had convinced him to marry her. 

She had gone to bed with him and enjoyed herself, just as she had enjoyed their game of seduction.

But now she was supposed to kill him.

And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to strike. That was the plan – to kill him, to wound herself, to scream for help. She had laid the groundwork for such an attack, complaining that she felt someone was following them..

Even if it didn’t work, Helena was all right with the plan. Her life was an acceptable sacrifice in her eyes.

As he lay there in front of her – naked, tangled in the sheets of their marriage bed, defenseless – she could not bring herself to kill him.

Helena thought suddenly of an old story her grandmother had told her, of a foolish mermaid who fell in love with a human prince. The mermaid had made a foolish bargain with a crafty sea-enchantress, trading her beautiful voice for a chance to walk on the land and win him for her own. But the human prince did not love the mermaid, not the way she loved him. She was doomed, until her sisters made their own sacrifice to gain one last chance for their littlest sister. Yet the mermaid had been unable to do what she must, unable to kill the prince so that his lifeblood would transform her back into a mermaid. Instead, she had chosen to die.

As a child, Helena had been annoyed with the mermaid, at how she had thrown away that chance, that sacrifice.

Now, she thought she might understand how the mermaid had felt. She couldn’t strike, couldn’t plunge the knife into him and put out the light in his eyes forever. Somewhere along the way, Helena realized, she had fallen in love with him.

But more than that, his death would not give the mermaid back her tail, or restore the family she had served. It would only be his death. 

“If you’re going to kill me, you should just do it,” her new husband said, his voice breaking into her thoughts.

Helena jumped, let the knife fall from her hand. “I…I…”

He smiled at her. “The plan was not as secret as you thought it was. I’ve known for a week.”

“How?” She breathed the question, trying to think where the leak could have been.

“I have my sources.” He held out a hand. “And I had fallen for you. What if we found a better way to move forward?”

She sat on the bed, suddenly shy. “I’m open to suggestions. But the others…” The others would not be so forgiving, she knew. They would accuse her of feminine weakness, of being swayed by the pleasures of the bedroom. They would not understand the mermaid’s story.

Mikhail raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t the only one with a plan.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I enjoyed the prompt.


End file.
